Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian Court of Appeal, in flagrant violation of the law, handed down an unprecedented and unjust verdict against the three employees of Yerevan metro who were fired in February, 2014, after participating in a demonstration against the introduction of a mandatory funded pension component in the country, the sacked employees’ attorney, Kristine Gevorkyan, said in a statement on Monday, November 2.
Sevak Hovhannisyan, Andranik Gevorgyan and Gagik Galstyan challenged the lawfulness of their dismissal in a Yerevan first instance court and subsequently won the case: the court declared the dismissal to be null and void and ordered the management to pay the ex-staffers compensation five times the average salary.
The employer, however, refused to comply with the order and appealed the verdict at the appellate court. Judges Astghik Kharatyan (pictured), Karine Hakobyan and Taron Nazaryan, granting the appeal and overturning the lower court’s ruling, deemed the dismissal justified and canceled the obligation to pay compensation. The court, as stated by lawyer Gevorgyan, contradicted itself: they found the dismissal legitimate, acknowledging meanwhile that the metro workers were forced into idleness.
“It’s noteworthy, that the judgment of the Court of Appeal is only comprised of facts presented by the metro. There are a number of fictitious facts and violations in the ruling that, coming from advocacy tactics, we’d prefer not mention. The employees were fired solely for protesting along with dozens of other metro staffers and speaking out against the compulsory accumulative pension system,” Kristine Gevorkyan said.